Police said they found this fully loaded 9 mm handgun in a Honda Accord that fled from a state trooper in Holyoke early Sunday morning, crashing into several parked vehicles. The car and weapon may have been involved in an earlier shooting, according to Holyoke Police Sgt. Kevin Thomas. Massachusetts State Police

HOLYOKE — It began as a routine traffic stop after a motorist allegedly blew a red light at Resnic Boulevard early Sunday, but it ended with the recovery of a handgun that may have been used in a Springfield shooting, according to authorities.

Massachusetts State Police officials said Trooper Timothy Harrington stopped a gold Honda Accord around 2 a.m. after the car drove through a red light on Resnic Boulevard. As Harrington was speaking to the driver and two passengers, he spotted the barrel of what appeared to be a gun tucked under the thigh of the front-seat passenger, police said.

Harrington then backed away from the Honda, which took off moments later at a high rate of speed in the wrong direction on Maple Street, police said. The Honda crashed into several parked cars a few blocks away on Franklin Street, but the suspect vehicle was empty when Harrington caught up to it, police said.

Authorities said Harrington, with assistance from Holyoke Police Officer James Parnell, found a fully loaded 9 mm handgun and several spent shell casings inside the vehicle. The casings smelled as if they had been recently fired, police said, adding that the suspects remain at large.

Holyoke Police Sgt. Kevin Thomas said the Honda matched the description of a vehicle involved in an earlier shooting in Springfield, and law enforcement officials in that city were alerted. A Springfield police shift commander and detective reached Sunday evening had no information on the shooting.

A 19-year-old man was shot in the leg on Liberty Street in Springfield's Lower Liberty Heights neighborhood around 12:39 a.m. Sunday, but officials were unable to verify if that's the shooting to which Thomas referred.

As of Sunday evening, state police were still looking into the identities of the suspects from the traffic stop on Resnic Boulevard in Holyoke. "Warrants seeking their arrest will be sought at a later time," state police officials at Framingham headquarters said in a release.

Meanwhile, state police in Holyoke faced a similar situation when a driver fled from troopers at about 5:20 p.m. Sunday, crashing into a wall on South Canal Street. The driver exited the vehicle, jumped into the canal, and swam to the other side, where he was found hiding in the water near the river bank, police said.

The man, whose name was unavailable, was taken into custody by Holyoke Police Officer Brendan Boyle, who handed him over to state police, according to Thomas. The sergeant said he did not know what precipitated the chase or what charges the suspect might face. Additional information was not immediately available.